This article was provided by The Fern Society of Victoria

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Some Hardy Ferns For The Garden

Author: Chris Goudey    Founding president of our Society and respected author of several books on ferns and their culture, Chris with his wife Lorraine owns and operates Austral Ferns, a successful wholesale fern nursery near Geelong.
 
POTTING AND REPOTTING. If you want to grow a fern in a pot, you must repot it into a larger diameter pot at least every two years, prefer-ably every year. The best way to tell if a fern needs potting up (moving into a bigger pot) is to have the potting medium moist and, with one hand supporting the medium and plant, turn the whole thing upside down. Tap it out of the pot and inspect the roots. If either the whole side of the medium is matted with roots or many pale root ends are visible, it needs to be potted up.
 
You can either make your own mix (some good recipes are published in a small book the Society has available for $2) or buy a top quality potting mix. l can recom-mend Debco or Nurseryman's as reliable brands.
 
For most ferns, it is usually a waste of time potting up one size, instead go from a 5" to a 7" or 8" (125cm to 175 or 200cm) pot.
 
Don't ram the soil down, put it in and tap the pot to settle it around the plant. Water it in.
 
Don't forget to transfer the label with the fern! You'd be amazed how many labels disappear at potting up time so develop a system which helps you keep the run of them.
 
The best time to pot is in the growing season, which is from Spring right through to Autumn. You can pot up cool climate ferns in the Winter, but don't do any tropical or sub-tropical ferns then.

© 1999 'Chris Goudey'